Merrih Chrism

 เฮลโล Hello!

Pretty amazing week! For the hibernators among you, this week was Christmas! It was pretty fun! Thanks to everyone who sent me stuff! 

TRACTING HIGHLIGHTS

We did hours and hours of tracting this week. It was a grind! But it was worth it. Why, you ask? Well, let me tell you! 

- We got to a door with a doormat that said, "come back with a warrant." Who opened? This super super nice lady! She says that recently she's been trying to strenghten her relationship with God. She gave us coconut water, we gave her a Book of Mormon, and she invited us back! 

- We were trying a new apartment complex late at night. We were just going to try it out and head back home because we didnt have much longer. The first door that we knock, this guy opens up and he says, "oh my gosh, you guys are doing this in the cold? Come in!" He said he wasn't religious and he probably wasn't worth our time, but we sat down and over some Call of Duty, we had an actually amazing discussion about why we believe what we do. We got to share our personal conversion stories. He invited us back, and we caught him on Sunday. We shared about the Restoration and he is very interested in reading the Book of Mormon!

- One door opened up and this older guy was behind it and asked who we were. We told him that we were missionaries. He then said, direct quote, ""Would you like to come in and drink some blood and get naked?" We were pretty caught off guard. Laughed and said no, so he said, "Then get the h*ll out of here!" I'm very worried about what this man has in his apartment.

- We were doing a ton of knocking on Christmas Eve. After knocking a door with a "No Soliciting" sign (because proselytizing is different from soliciting, but that's another subject), we got no answer. We moved on to the next door, which was right next to the first one, and while waiting on that door, the first door opens. Behind it is a man with no shirt, long greasy hair, a gaming headset on, and I swear chip crumbs in his stringy beard. He starts screaming at us about being in front of his door so long, about the no soliciting sign, and about anything else he could find to be mad about. Many F-Bombs were dropped. He slams the door, opens it again to scream a little more, and slams it again. Just as this was happening, our zone leaders pulled into the parking lot of the complex and saw the whole thing happen. They were laughing so hard!

That's kinda the thing about being a missionary. You have to take the good with the bad. Both will come. But I've learned that if you can laugh about the bad experiences, like those two guys I mentioned, they become good experiences. Those are things I'll be talking about weeks, even months or years from now and I'll be able to look on them fondly, because honestly, they're hilarious.

BUNNIES OF THE BUSH

We are going on morning runs every few days. We have a trail right next to our hotel that we like to run on. One morning, it was really frosty and foggy. As we start running we see a few rabbits just chilling on the side of the trail. When we got close, they just straight up jumped into blackberry bushes off the side! If you know anything about blackberry bushes, you know they are super thorny! Even bush man wouldn't hide in those. There were rabbits in random spots along the trail. All of them jumped. We also have to run under a bridge for a second on this trail. As we were running one day, we saw this homeless person in the way just sleeping on the pavement. Kinda like Snorlax. We regained our composure and booked it past him.

LAST THINGS LAST

- we found a really ghetto playground with a half-buried tire, rusty monkey bars, and a punching bag. Catch me there on P Day.

- Uno Twist is super fun.

- I won a game called garbage. Which is pretty fitting.

- Roses are red, violets are blue, you've heard this before, but I love you!

เอ็ลเดอร์ เอาปืนมาสำหรับความปลอดภัย (Elder brought a gun for safety)

Elder Barrett

Preaching to the Mexican Choir

 เฮลโล Hello!

Welcome back to my weekly TED talk. It's an honor to be here. So, I got transferred last week to the Alki YSA Branch in Seattle. It's pretty crazy, pretty awesome. There are/were a couple Springville High alumni over here, so that's pretty crazy. Also a piano player who sings and plays like he's a baptist in Alabama. Plus all of his concert lights and disco ball. It's pretty unbelievable.

UNINTENTIONALLY ILLEGAL ACTIVITY

So, a few days out of the week, we wake up early and go to the ZL's apartment to work out. There are a lot of missionary apartments in this complex, and they typically have pictures of Jesus on the front door when missionaries are there. The ZLs don't have one, but it's easy to remember where they live, because one of those doors with Jesus is right across from theirs. So when we got to the complex, we found the picture and started knocking on the door across from it, where the ZLs live. We knocked for about 15 minutes. Knocking, talking through the door, saying "let us in!" "Are you still asleep?" "If you don't let us in we're gonna break down the door!" Etc. At one point, Elder Knapp even unscrewed the peephole and started talking INTO the house. After about 15 minutes of this, Elder Knapp realized that this was not, in fact, the ZLs, but actually just a random apartment. So we booked it out of there and found the ZLs apartment across from another Jesus picture, on the same floor, just another building. So, we probably scared some random stranger to DEATH! Whoops.

FELIZ NAVIDAD

We were out on Sunday, trying to find some people we had met earlier in the week at this sketchy apartment complex (and there are a LOT of those around here). We get there, and we see in the parking lot there are about 25-30 Mexicans wearing all white. They're all just kinda congregated together. We decided that we would check on the person we came here to see first, and then drop some spiritual knowledge on the congregation. We knock on our friend's door, and we hear music start playing. And what song could it be, but Feliz Navidad. Our friend didn't answer and we see they're all singing this song and dancing together for one of their relatives who was inside and watching and dancing from a window. By the time we actually got close enough to them, they were starting to get into their cars and drive off, so we just wished them all a merry christmas. What I wouldn't give to be a Spanish Elder in that moment haha.

WE CAN'T STOP AND WE WON'T STOP

We have been GRINDING out here. We are both new to the area, and there is just about nothing to go off of. There are only like 15 active members of the branch. We are definitely going to try to make that better, because there's at least 100 members in the ward directory. We also have just been going from apartment complex to apartment complex and talking to anyone and everyone. We've met some really really cool people. Some who are actually genuinely interested. And I'm so excited to actually get back to teaching! We've gone to some super ghetto spots to try to find these diamonds in the rough. And it's working! Hopefully next week I'll be able to share about some experiences with our new friends.

LAST THINGS LAST

- We accidentally drove into the airport. These roads are confusing!!

- I am the dog whisperer.

- We stopped by a goodwill and I found a great sweater for christmas.

- We had a drive thru caroling thing at the church. So I got an excuse to scream at oncoming cars.

- Being hardened by the inner city doesn't change the irrefutable fact that I love you!

เอ็ลเดอร์ อย่าถูกยิง (Elder, don't be shot)

Elder Barrett

 

Hello, Seattle (For real this time)

 เฮลโล Hello!

Hey hey everybody! It's been a pretty typical week in the life of a missionary. A lesson here, a missed appointment or two there. But hey! Can't complain. I have some good news, though! I'm getting transferred! I know you die hard Benson Hill lovers will be a little disappointed, but all of you Seattle homers will be excited to hear that I'll be serving in the Alki YSA Branch!!! That's in the Seattle Stake, so blast that Owl City song and let's do this!!

I LIKE TO MOVE IT MOVE IT

We shifted our furniture moving ability into high gear this week. We were helping our friend Jim move out pretty much all week long. We went some pretty crazy places to drop off furniture. I'm talking about a random trailer in Enumclaw, a house in Auburn, and a fire pit in Kent! It was a party. Especially when we picked up some subway on the way back.

TIN FOIL HAT ON

Ok, so I need to talk to y'all about something. It's very important to me, so please pay attention. A little over a year ago, Elder Andersen came to speak to us in the MTC for Thanksgiving. It was great! Had a great time, shook his hand, all that jazz. Then I go to Thailand. Who shows up to talk to us? Elder Andersen. That's pretty funny, isn't it? Like, what are the odds? Then I get reassigned to the Washington Seattle Mission. This last week we were informed that an apostle would be speaking to us. Do you know who it was that came to speak to us? Anyone wanna take a guess? No, not Jesus. No! It was ELDER ANDERSEN! The third time in a row. So, I'm being stalked by an apostle. It's whatever.

UNLESS SOMEONE LIKE YOU CARES A WHOLE AWFUL LOT

Nothing is gonna get better, it's not! I was reading a talk by Neal A Maxwell called "Encircled in the Arms of His Love." I had a cool impression come to my mind and I figured I'd share it with you:

"Laman and Lemuel, for instance, were aware of ancient Israel’s miraculous rescue from Pharaoh’s mighty armies, but they murmured and were intimidated by a mere, local Laban"

   - there are so many trials that come up in my life that I'm too proud or too selfish to actually accept help. I feel like Laban and Lemuel were honestly content with just having the problem. Not being able to get the plates from Laban proves that Lehi is crazy and that what's been asked of them is too hard. It validates their complaining and murmuring. But we don't get better by failing and saying, "well I cant do anything about it anymore, looks like I was right and this thing was too hard." Anything can be done and accomplished through our efforts and faith in Christ. If we are humble enough to want to overcome our trials, we will become more like Jesus Christ, who overcame everything.

So, hopefully that makes sense to you, like it did in my head!

LAST THINGS LAST

- A member explained the entire history of how Laos became an independent nation. In Thai! So that was awesome.

- I lost my last game of cover your assets I will ever play in Benson Hill.

- I'll see y'all in Seattle! A change in scenery doesn't mean I'm ever gonna stop loving you!

เอ็ลเดอร์ ซีแอตเทิล (Elder Seattle)

Elder Barrett

I got her machine! Her answering machine?

No, interestingly enough, her leaf blower picked up.

เฮลโล Hello!

Your favorite human leaf blower is back! It was a week full of service, english classes, and unanswered phone calls. Pretty basic week for a missionary nowadays, I think.

OH, YOU'RE HAVING A PAR-TYYY

A recent convert was having a little birthday party, and invited us to come! We agreed, because who can say no to free cake, right? We showed up, and wouldn't you know it, as we're putting up decorations the District Leader and his companions drop in. Cool, the more the merrier! Then while we're wrapping presents, the Zone Leaders show up! Ok, cool stuff. But now this house is getting a little crowded. Some more friends drop by. This is a full apartment, dude. Then we hear that the STL trio is on their way. Luckily, very on brand for them, they were an hour and a half late. So we were already almost done at that point. Anyways, it was awesome. The Zone Leaders took our food for us biking Elders and told us they'd drop it at our door. It wasnt there when we got home. Sus? Definitely. 

RAKE ON ME RAKE ME ON

We are raking experts. We've gotten so skilled at raking up leaves, it's hard to talk about it and stay humble. But we've logged in HOURS of leave raking this week. This transfer? More than I can count! And not just because I can't count very high. But, we have an awesome friend we rake for, and he brings us Wendy's every time we go over. It's amazing.

TONIGHT, WE RIDE

And ride, and ride, and ride. My legs are gonna fall off, y'all. Benson Hill is exactly what is sounds like. Just a huge hill. My biggest problem is that my bike isnt good for downhill or uphill. And, even though everywhere we go is uphill both ways in a blizzard, whenever I go downhill, my brakes do a whole lot of nothing to slow down. It's scary stuff And biking uphill is just a bad time, but that's not news to you. We biked so hard on Sunday, that when we got to our appointment, my entire shirt was moist. It was so gross.

LAST THINGS LAST

- Y'all better be out there lighting the world!

- I really miss playing basketball and going on actual runs. Exercise is underrated.

- Wingstop wings arent spicy. I don't care what the heat scale thingy says, it sits on a throne of lies.

- All of this gratitude and Christmas spirit is amazing. It's joyful AND triumphant! Y'know what else is joyful and triumphant? You! I love you!

เอ็ลเดอร์ พึ่งพาซีเรียล (Elder relies on cereals)

Elder Barrett